{"id":3509,"date":"2017-12-31T17:48:47","date_gmt":"2017-12-31T12:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theoryofprogramming.azurewebsites.net\/?p=3509"},"modified":"2017-12-31T17:48:47","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T12:18:47","slug":"print-matrix-in-spiral-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theoryofcoding.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/31\/print-matrix-in-spiral-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Print matrix in spiral order"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problem statement<\/strong> – Given a 2D array (or matrix) of N rows and M columns, print it in a spiral order. Example, for the below matrix –<\/p>\n

\nint[] arr = {\n                {1, 2, 3},\n                {4, 5, 6},\n                {7, 8, 9},\n            };\n<\/pre>\n
The output is –<\/p>\n
\n1 2 3 6 9 8 7 4 5\n<\/pre>\n
Solution<\/strong> – When an interviewer asks you this question, he\/she is just testing your implementation skills. This question isn’t tough because it doesn’t have any corner cases, but it is quite tough to solve if you start over thinking.<\/p>\n
Let us label the rows\/columns which we must print –<\/p>\n
\"Print<\/a>So, our top-most row is top<\/em>, bottom-most row is bottom<\/em>, left-most column is left<\/em> and right-most column is right<\/em>. As we keep printing elements of the matrix, we will bring them closer to each other. Initially –<\/p>\n